Management Science Education

In this brief comment on education and management science I will focus my attention on what the universities should provide, recognizing (1) that this is only one part of a management scientist's education and (2) that not all management scientists fit into a single mold.

In general the universities seem to be doing excellently in teaching the basic mathematical skills. They have developed courses covering all phases of mathematical programming, statistics, and stochastic processes. They are doing increasingly well in offering computer science courses relevant to management science (e.g. simulation, file manipulation). By contrast, truly relevant courses in the behavioral sciences seem to be much less well developed as are courses centered on the philosophy and practice of management science and operations research.